Thank you for visiting the LCI website. For nearly 50 years of its history since its birth as the world first research center dedicated to the science and technology of liquid crystals, the LCI has always been the hot spot of never ending innovation to make the world a better place through advancement in scientific knowledge. The core technology of liquid crystal TVs, now a common household appliance, was invented by the LCI scientists at the dawn of the LCD industry some 40 years ago. The continued tradition of the LCI is the vigorous mix of technical disciplines and the seamless portfolio of research from basic to applied topics. Here at the LCI, the entrepreneurship is an inevitable consequence of its tradition, not the end.

In the rise of the green, life-conscious, and information driven society, the whole area of the liquid crystals and soft materials is undergoing seismic changes. The field is rapidly being diversified far beyond information displays, heralding another surge of breakthroughs toward the era of smart, flexible and energy efficient or even energy generating devices that should open a completely new market far beyond our imagination.

Our mission at the LCI is to lay the sound scientific foundation of the coming innovation and to spearhead to develop new technologies to open emerging markets on the basis of our technical asset built over the past half century. We invite industry to partner with us to work together for tomorrow. The last but not the least, we offer the best multidisciplinary learning environment for our graduate students and young researchers to help them prepare to take on leadership in shaping the future.

July, 2011
Hiroshi Yokoyama, Ph.D.
Director, LCI